The doctrine of justification by faith (sola fida) that suggests that once we believe we are immediately justified, is something like this shirt I had when I was 4. I spilled cranberry juice all over the front of it and didn't really know that laundry machines existed. And so, my little brain concluded that there was only one solution to this dilemma - I took a red paintbrush and painted over the entire design that had formerly decorated my shirt to disguise the stain. Good bye forever flower-patterned shirt!
When we say that the blood of Jesus justifies us from the moment we put our faith in Him – we become that shirt – we are covered by the blood of Christ in an instant. And if we subscribe to a doctrine of once saved always saved, we can no longer re-create that shirt. Those flowers that were once there, the sin that once made us unworthy of entering heaven is permanently covered and cannot be revealed.
A few years later, I learned to do the laundry.
From that point on, I discovered that different clothes require different rinses. A general detergent is normally enough to clean a shirt, but once and a while, a special something is needed. Once the shirt comes out of the wash, it’s not always clean – sometimes it needs to be washed again before it’s fully ready to be worn again. But once it’s clean, it looks just as it did when it was made. The flowers don’t fade and the colours remain bright.
I think that’s why I find the doctrine of ongoing justification so beautiful. Everything about who we are becomes justified. We’re not all run through the same mill; we don’t all undergo the same transformation. Instead – we are uniquely transformed through our personal experiences, prayers and times of worship. It is our trials – or rather our response to trials, to temptation and to suffering that change us. Our life becomes a permanent process of conversion as God reaches deep in to our souls and draws out the spotless creature that He has made. Instead of wiping away our ability to reject God in one moment, instead we walk slowly, hourly with our God as He changes our will and strengthens us to choose in Him in every circumstance. And so our flowers remain.
It’s not as easy. And it’s not as simple.
But it’s so beautiful.
